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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963145">Safe With Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm'>thudworm</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arc Reactor Issues, Chronic Pain, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Missions Gone Wrong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:47:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>929</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963145</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission going sideways leaves Tony stuck without any of his usual methods of pain control. Thankfully, Nat has an alternative.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619530</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>153</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Safe With Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title: Safe With Me<br/>Collaborator Name: @thudworm<br/>Card Number: 3093<br/>Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963145<br/>Square Filled: T3- Hurt/Comfort<br/>Ship/Main Pairing: Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark<br/>Rating: Teen<br/>Major Tags: hurt/comfort, chronic pain, arc reactor issues<br/>Summary: A mission going sideways leaves Tony stuck without any of his usual methods of pain control. Thankfully, Nat has an alternative.<br/>Word Count: 929</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony was used to hiding the amount of pain the arc reactor sometimes caused him. Showing weakness was a liability he couldn’t afford, both as Iron Man and as the head of Stark Industries. Even on days when the pain was 8/10, he would go out and face the board of directors, or the press, or the public with a smile on his face and no one ever seemed to notice anything amiss. </p><p>But as good as he was at hiding the pain, Nat was better at reading him. Somehow she always seemed to know when to slip the pain meds to him at meals, and could do it subtly enough that no one else was any the wiser.</p><p>Except all the awareness in the world did no good when stuck in a situation like this. The mission was supposed to have been simple, so of course everything had gone to shit, leaving Tony, Nat, and Clint to wait to hear from the rest of the team so they could decide on the next steps. </p><p>The three of them were stuck in a tiny little safehouse, if it even counted as a house, in the middle of nowhere. There was one bedroom, a tiny kitchenette, and a couch. Not even a TV, let alone a wifi signal.</p><p>“Looks like we’ll just have to hunker down and wait to hear from Cap,” Nat said. </p><p>“Great,” Tony replied sarcastically, and began to shed the armour. It was slow going because he’d taken a solid hit to the chest piece in just the wrong place, which made it hard to twist far enough to release the latches. Said hit was also causing him an incredible amount of pain, but there was no point complaining about it. The mission still needed to be completed, and Tony had been in more demanding situations while in worse pain than this.</p><p>Nat gave up on her search through the cupboards, having found nothing more than a few tins of soup and protein bars, and sat on the floor next to Tony. </p><p>“I take it there’s no real point in me asking if you found a heat pack in one of those cupboards?” Tony asked her. </p><p>“Unfortunately, no such luck.”</p><p>“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Tony said as he let his head hit the wall behind him. </p><p>“Don’t worry. I maybe have an idea,” Nat said. “Go wait in the bedroom for me.”</p><p>There was a stained old mattress laying directly on the ground, which Tony was not willing to touch with his bare skin. There was a wardrobe in the corner, and thankfully he found some musty, but clean, sheets to cover it with. </p><p>When Nat entered a couple of minutes later, Tony couldn’t resist pointing out the obvious assumption for why they would be commandeering the sole bedroom. “You do realise that Clint is probably turning off his hearing aids right now because he thinks we're having sex in here, right?”</p><p>“It seemed the lesser of two evil. Unless you’d prefer to stay in pain all night?”</p><p>“Well, unless you’ve got my meds stashed somewhere, I don’t see what else we’d be doing here. You know as well as I do that the endorphin release doesn’t exactly do much to take the edge off.” </p><p>“No, but I do have something else in mind. Take off your shirt and lie down on your back.”</p><p>“Yes ma’am,” Tony snarked, which earned him a swat on the arm from Nat. </p><p>Tony did as he was asked and took his place on the bed, and even managed to resist the urge he still felt to try to cover his chest. It was hard for him to let anyone really look at the twisted web of scars he carried as a souvenir of his time in Afghanistan, but Nat managed to be the person he was least self-conscious around. Whenever they were exposed she never shied away from looking, but never stared either. She had enough scars of her own; it worked both ways. </p><p>“I stole this from Clint,” she said, holding up a small tube of something.</p><p>“Dare I ask what <em> it </em> is?” Tony asked.</p><p>“It’s liniment. Clint keeps a stash in his quiver because he says it works wonders after he spends all day at the range. I figured it would do the same for the muscles in your chest.”</p><p>“I suppose there’s no harm in trying,” Tony agreed.</p><p>Nat was still fully clothed in her jumpsuit as she sat on top of him, straddling his hips. </p><p>“Are you sure this isn’t a sex thing?” Tony asked, but instead of answering Nat just squirted half of the tube onto his chest. He initially flinched at the coldness, before he quickly relaxed into the massage. It was like magic, how fast the persistent ache in his chest disappeared under her touch. </p><p>“Who taught you how to do that?” Tony groaned with relief. “Because I need to send them a gift basket to say thank you.”</p><p>Nat just laughed at him. “I learned some skills when I had to go undercover at a day spa. You’d be surprised at how much people are willing to let slip to their masseuse.”</p><p>“Yeah, well. Who could blame them after an experience like that? Please don’t ask me for SI’s financial documents, because right now I’d probably give them to you, and then Pepper would have to kill me.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, you’re safe with me,” Nat said, and even though she was just responding to Tony’s half-joking comment, he meant so much more when he agreed. </p><p> </p>
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